Music Jar – week 35

Each week I listen to an artist or band that I should really have known more about. Now is the time for Washington-born rock band, Death Cab for Cutie.

What I Knew Before
I’m going to take you back. The year is 2008. You’re sat in a Ford Fiesta spinning the wheel of your iPod (bought with a tax rebate from your summer job in a Wetherspoons), connected by an auxiliary lead to the tape deck. That morning you’ve downloaded Zane Lowe’s Top 10, the best source for your indie and rock needs. He keeps playing the same thirty seconds of a song called Cath… You realise that you should definitely know more about this song and this album and this band so you ask your friend Marc to risk the structural integrity of his desktop computer by torrenting it for you. He does so and you fall in love with Narrow Stairs as an album but never venture any further.
That’s what I know about Death Cab for Cutie.

What I Know Now
DCfC are still making music today and from their early days to now, there’s a wonder and a consistency to it. Their late 90s tone has an In The Aeroplane Over The Sea quality to it but they quickly grew out of it. There’s a lot to be said for Ben Gibbard’s lyrical style which I appreciated more after listening to The Postal Service ad nauseam when someone I fancied told me they liked them.
When Death Cab came out of the Music Jar for this week, Marc sent me a list of their best albums and then told me which I would specifically enjoy. Not only was he correct but now we have to burn him as a witch. I’m slowly learning that he might have been right about all music from the start, but I still don’t rate Billy Talent.
Some of you may know DCfC for Meet Me on the Equinox. I bet you’re all Team Jacob as well, you absolute wasters.

Favourite songs: 
The Ice Is Getting Thinner, Cath…, I Will Possess Your Heart, I Will Follow You Into The Dark, Transatlanticism, Soul Meets Body, 60 & Punk.

Favourite album:
My favourite album will always be Narrow Stairs but I was really impressed by Transatlanticism, Codes and Keys and Thank You for Today.

Spotify my favourite songs from this project.